Neil Thompson, head of Virgin's loyalty program Photo: Michel O'Sullivan

The 55-year-old Melbourne-born, Mandarin-speaking executive is on the board of Plan International Australia and an advisory board member of the Australian National University's Centre for China in the World.

Mr Thompson's accomplishments at Velocity included growing the membership base by 1.6 million to 4.7 million members, signing a world-first points conversion deal with Singapore Airlines's KrisFlyer program, launching the Global Wallet debit card product and signing major partnerships with BP, Aussie Home Loans and Australia Post.

Virgin last year sold 35 per cent of its Velocity program to private equity group Affinity Equity Partners in a transaction that valued the business at $1 billion.

Until 2008, he ran the frequent flyer business of rival Qantas Airways, which now has more than 10.3 million members. He left that role to work for New York-based Seabury Aviation and Aerospace's loyalty practice before being coaxed to Virgin by chief executive John Borghetti. The pair had known each other while at Qantas.

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Mr Borghetti said Mr Thompson had done an "outstanding job" in delivering on all of the program's strategic targets and had built a strong foundation for the future growth of the business.

"I sincerely thank him for his dedication and commitment and wish him all the best in his future endeavours", Mr Borghetti said.

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Mr Borghetti has set a target of growing Velocity's membership base to 7 million by 2017.

Under the deal with Affinity, the private equity firm could choose to exit its 35 per cent stake via a float or trade sale from late 2017. However, Mr Thompson last year said Virgin planned to maintain a majority stake in the loyalty business. The airline also retains a first right of refusal over the Affinity stake in certain circumstances and the right to participate in the private equity group's equity mechanisms.

To date, Virgin has never broken out the earnings of its loyalty arm. But in a prospectus for a $US300 million high-yield bond raising in November, the airline said Velocity had accounted for a "material" portion of $394.5 million of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation and aircraft rental costs for the financial year ended June 30, 2014.

In the bond prospectus, Virgin said it expects that Affinity would agree to distribute earnings from Velocity that are not being deployed in the loyalty business, but it warned that despite its majority stake, it will need consent from Affinity to do so. It also said it expected Velocity would raise its own debt in the future, which could further restrict the availability of distributions to Virgin.